BRIDGETON — Staff from Gov. Chris Christie’s Office of Constituent Relations brought Trenton to Bridgeton on Wednesday to hold mobile office hours and meet with constituents about state government-related concerns.

Residents from throughout Cumberland County took advantage of the opportunity to speak with one of the five staffers in attendance regarding a wide range of issues including environmental concerns, child care payment systems, support available to Hispanic communities, unemployment and flooding control.

“I’ve called up to Trenton and have been given the ring-around-the-rosie, sent around to three different people and eventually back to the person I started with,” said Wayne Byrd of Gouldtown, who said he has been trying to resolve an unemployment claim error made by state employees since October.

“I faxed up my paperwork and right now am in limbo even though they screwed up in Trenton, so I was going to get in my car and go up there. But then I said I’ll just come here since the governor’s office is on the top of this mess,” Byrd said. “I spoke with Nora here who said she will handle getting my papers up there to who’s in charge. It’s not necessarily a slam dunk, but she said she will do what she can to help, and I appreciate that.”

Jeanne Dovgala Ashmore, director of the Office of Constituent Relations, explained that she and other staff were hosting mobile office hours to open lines of communications and fulfill the governor’s commitment to make state resources available to constituents who may not otherwise know how to get help addressing their problems.

She said they’ve held a handful of mobile office hours thus far throughout the state and resident concerns “always run the gamut of individual issues and requests and more community-centered issues.”

At the Bridgeton Police and Municipal Complex, state staff and residents exchanged direct contact information, and Ashmore said the Office of Constituent Relations would be following up with residents to put them in touch with the appropriate department contacts or to provide other guidance on how to go about getting answers to their questions.

“On behalf of the governor, I’m thrilled that people are coming and bringing these concerns to our attention to see if we can help them,” Ashmore said.

Blake Maloney, president of the Cohansey Area Watershed Association (CAWA) and member of the county Agriculture Development Board and Upper Deerfield Township Environmental Commission, came prepared with three major areas of focus pertaining to local environmental issues.

“(CAWA) is looking for funding to identify pollutants in the Upper Cohansey area to determine whether they’re from farm fields, septic tanks or elsewhere, and to do that we need to speciate samples, or identify whether they’re from humans, birds or wildlife,” Maloney said. “Also, the next round of funding for farmland preservation and open space hasn’t been passed, so hopefully we can get that moving, since we’re one of the biggest farmland areas and funding is running out.

“The last item I came to discuss was the waiver rule, which needs to be addressed because it bypasses government and local rules to move forward with development,” Maloney added.

Andrew Robertson, an aide to the governor who works in the Office of Constituent Relations, met with area residents Ramon Hernandez, Rodolfo Guerrero and Jon Cummings regarding issues affecting local Hispanic communities and what resources, grants and programs may be available through the state to support the work of groups like Hernandez’s organization, the Mexican American Association of Southern New Jersey.

“I plan to speak with them again tomorrow,” Robertson said. “I might not be able to address every concern immediately, but it will be beneficial to both of us to open these lines of communication.”

Jean Scarani, director of Upper Deerfield Preschool, presented persistent problems with a state-mandated computer system implemented in January to track child care subsidies. Scarani explained that the new system requires a family receiving child care subsidies to swipe a card upon dropping off and picking up a child, which has led to confusion and missing payments to the center.

Since state licensing requirements still demand maintenance of manual records and guardian signature to sign children in at the center, Scarani said the new system causes duplication in addition to extra staffing requirements to provide supervision of the staffing machine and bilingual assistance to Spanish-speaking families struggling with the swipe mechanism.

“Some centers say the system is so bad they don’t want to deal with subsidy anymore, so who is this affecting? It’s affecting low-income families, working parents and parents who are getting an education, because that’s who gets subsidy,” Scarani said. “The system is jeopardizing child care, and it’s just not effective or parent- or school-friendly.”

Cpl. Edward S. Sheppard spoke to state representatives about the failed dikes in Greenwich and the increasingly looming threat of salt water ruining the township. Sheppard compared trying to work with the state Department of Environmental Protection to “banging your head against the wall” and lamented the lack of cooperation thus far from the state Division of Fish & Wildlife, but he acknowledged it was good to be offered face time in Cumberland County.

“I’ve been beating on every politician’s door I can and trying to get my foot in somewhere because we’re in dire need for help down there,” Sheppard said. “Greenwich is the oldest town in Cumberland County and my ancestral home; my family has been here since 1680, and I want Greenwich to be there for a long time after I’m gone.”

Sheppard noted that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” and, although he’s been rehashing the issues surrounding the failed dikes over and over, he hopes enough “squeaking” from Cumberland County brings assistance from Trenton down before it’s too late for a historical gem like Greenwich.